Jake

After school on that fateful day I sat on the porch swing and thought of how much I missed Jake. I thought of all the great times we had together. He and I grew up together. I was about a year and a half, and Jake was maybe a year when he wondered into our yard. He took to me like butter to popcorn, and I loved him from the very first.

He was just a mutt. His long skinny legs, wide chest, floppy ears, big black eyes and cold nose made him my bestest pal in the whole world.

I think he was my moms pal too. He always steered me around the puddles, and would pick up my gloves and mittens when I dropped them in the winter time, and when I got into something I shouldn't he would bark his head off until my mom came and got me.

We ate everything together, except he ate my broccoli, cause I never liked the stuff, and a couple of times I tried his dog food, I didn't like that stuff either. We would share cookies and he always got half my cupcake. Some times I gave him some of mom's taffy, and it would get stuck on the roof of his mouth, and I would be laughing so much I was crying watching his tongue trying to unstuck that stuff.

Jake was a real pal. He would sleep in my bed with me, and in the winter he kept me so warm. Even when I wet the bed he stayed right there with me.

When I started school he would walk down the driveway with me, and wait until I got on the bus, and he would go back by the shade tree by the porch and wait for me to come home.

As the bus would stop, he would come flying down the driveway, barking, tail going so fast he would almost fall down. As I walked up the driveway, Jake would run circles around me and bark. I would change clothes and he and I would play until supper. Jake would lay right next to me and snap up anything that I might drop. Jake ate a lot of broccoli and Brussel Sprouts for me.

All thru school we were pals.

Then one morning when I was in the eighth grade, I got up and Jake wasn't there. I walked into the kitchen, and saw my mom. She looked like she had been crying.

"Where is Jake" I asked? Mom grabbed and held my hand and said "He's gone honey. He came down here in the kitchen, looked at me, and looked back up the stairs towards your room, and looked back at me, and laid down and died."

Mom started crying again, I cried, my dad came in, and he was all teary-eyed too.

My dad put his hand on my shoulder and said "A man's best friend is his dog, and Jake was a good friend to you for years. I think maybe Jake knew he was gonna die, and that's why he came down here to remind your maw and me we need to look after you, because he had to go.

I buried him over by the yellow pine where you and him used to play. After school we'll make a marker for him."

Thru the tears my dad said "Come on son, I'll walk you down to the bus."